The country’s scoring leader said his passion for playing basketball has translated to his success.

Virginia Tech senior guard Erick Green has become a distinguished player on a struggling team.

“I love this game,” Green said. “I just come out every night and with all my heart.”

Green has been leading the country in scoring for weeks, spending most of that time with a last-place team.

A 6-foot-4 senior from Winchester, Va., Green is averaging 25.4 points per game.

He’s in line to be the first ACC player to lead the country in scoring since South Carolina’s Grady Wallace (31.2 points per game) in 1956-57.

“He’s a high-octane scorer and he can score in so many different ways,” Miami coach Jim Larrranga said. “He’s distributing the ball and getting his teammates involved. … He actually produces enough points for two players.”

Green, who has scored in double figures in a league-best 34 consecutive games dating to last season, eclipsed Virginia Tech’s single-season scoring record in the regular-season finale. Green has 786 points. Bimbo Coles set the mark in 1989-90 with 785 points.

“It’s a great feeling to have that,” Green said. “Passing Bimbo, he’s one of the all-time greats. I’m sure it will hit me soon.”

Green is in elite company among Hokies. Coles averaged 26.6 points as a junior and 25.3 points as a senior. Bob Ayersman checked in with 26.5 per game in 1958-59 and Allan Bristow had 25 per game in 1971-72.

“Green has been doing it all year long,” first-year Virginia Tech coach James Johnson said. “Sometimes we rely on Green. … What he has been able to do against every defense because every defense is game-planning for him.”

Green is the active career scoring leader in the ACC with 1,727 points. So not all schemes have worked as designed.

“Obviously, we didn’t have one because he was great,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said after last week’s game.

Green said he’s disturbed by the team’s 13-18 record and losing ways. From a personal standpoint, he said his dedication to improve has paid off.

“I feel 1-on-1, nobody can stay in front of me,” he said of factors that have allowed him to become such a high-scoring player. “Just shooting the ball well and getting to the foul line.”

Among those scoring bursts this season was a 26-point outing at the Greensboro Coliseum — the site of this week’s ACC Tournament — in November against UNC Greensboro. In that game, the Hokies scored a season-high 96 points.

In ACC games, Green has been on a similar clip with 26.1 points per game. That’s the most in a season since former Duke guard J.J. Redick posted 29.3 per game in conference endeavors in 2005-06.

“He has led that team and he hasn’t had all the resources around him, and he still puts up those numbers,” Krzyzewski said of Green. “Just a terrific performance all year by Erick.”

On Senior Night, Green took only 12 shots from the field in a victory against Clemson. He made eight of them.

“It sums his whole season up in one game, what type of player he is and what type of kid he is,” Johnson said. “He’d much rather have the win.

“He makes the right decisions as a basketball player, the right decisions as a point guard.”

Johnson said Green’s unselfishness defines him more than the points.

“There are times where I look at it and I think he should be a little bit more aggressive or needs to be a little bit more aggressive, but he makes the right basketball play,” Johnson said.

The well-rounded aspects of Green’s performances are what are most impressive to Johnson.

“The unselfishness, the ability to pass the ball, the ability to score the ball in different areas, the ability to defend,” Johnson said.

As a scorer, Green has made a steady climb since providing 2.6 points as a reserve as a freshman. His offensive production went to 11.6 points per game as a sophomore and then to 15.6 last season.

In some ways, Green has nearly lapped the ACC field this season. The second-leading scorer is Duke’s Mason Plumlee with 17.2 points per game (just outside the top 75 nationally), followed by Duke’s Seth Curry at 17.1 and Virginia’s Joe Harris at 17.0.

“Erick Green is a handful,” WakeForest coach Jeff Bzdelik said after watching the guard pump in 35 points against his team.

Green sits in the top 10 in the conference in field-goal percentage (eighth, 48.2), free-throw percentage (third, 81.5), assists per game (sixth, 3.9), steals per game (seventh, 14.1), 3-pointers made (seventh, 58) and assist-to-turnover ratio (sixth, 1.8). He’s first in minutes played at 36.6 per outing.

Still, the losing has taken a toll. The losses have risen at the rate of Green’s points.

“I would erase all these points to get this win,” he said after one game.

Johnson said for a player who was on two state championship teams in high school, the Hokies’ record is troubling.

“It kills him to lose,” Johnson said.

Next, it will be a professional career of some sort.

“I haven’t talked to him about that at all, and he’s just concentrating on finishing up the season strong for us,” Johnson said.